LOWER POTTSGROVE — Mark Dukes was attempting to beg off the postgame interview.

“Bring the offensive line over, talk to them,” he said.

Heck, the whole darn Pottsgrove team could’ve joined him ... because everyone played that well Friday night.

The undefeated Falcons, in what was arguably their best performance of the season, overwhelmed visiting Owen J. Roberts in just about every aspect of the game in a 59-7 rout to put an exclamation behind the Homecoming celebration.

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Dukes did his share, ran for 156 yards and four touchdowns — all but five of those yards and all four scores coming in the first half — and quarterback Tory Hudgins added another 112 yards and two touchdowns. Nine others had at least one carry, too, as the Falcons ran for 354 yards and finished with 415 overall despite a running clock that got ticking just 15 seconds after the break, or when Michael Fowler returned the second-half kickoff 85 yards to open up a 46-7 spread.

But it wasn’t all offense, or Fowler’s return.

Pottsgrove’s defense held the Wildcats to just three first downs, only one in the second half, and 73 yards overall. Quarterback Jarrad Pinelli, who owned the area’s top passing rating going into the game, didn’t have an easy time eluding pressure the entire evening. He was only 3 of 11 for 20 yards — all three strikes and those 20 yards coming in the first half. He was hurried on all but one attempt, sacked four times, was picked off once and saw his receivers drop three others.

“I don’t know if it was our best game or not, but we did play well,” Pottsgrove head coach Rick Pennypacker said after his team improved to 6-0 in the Pioneer Athletic Conference and 7-0 overall. “This is the time of the year you have to play well, too, and I think our kids took upon themselves this week to do just that.”

If it wasn’t for OJR senior Matt Raymond’s 82-yard kickoff return moments after Dukes’ first touchdown — which created a 7-7 at the 3:20 mark of the opening quarter and gave the Wildcat faithful their lone hurrah of the affair — it would’ve been hard for Pennypacker to boast about a perfect game.

“I think our kids were a little over-amped in that first quarter,” he said. “But they settled down and played well.”

Or got amped up a bit more.

The first quarter ended in the 7-7 stalemate.

Pottsgrove needed just 16 snaps in the second quarter to score five times and take a 39-7 lead.

“(Pottsgrove) scored, then we scored,” said OJR head coach Tom Barr. “We came up with a big play, and we told the kids to keep it up, They had some enthusiasm. Then Pottsgrove had all those big plays... boom, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown.”

Dukes ignited the burst with a 52-yarder, Hudgins followed with a 50-yarder and 10-yarder, then Dukes was off on another 53-yarder. Before the first-half clock ran out, the Falcons drove 75 yards in seven plays, getting 39- and 22-yard completions from Hudgins to Fowler that set up Dukes’ one-yard pop off the right side with seven seconds remaining in the half.

For all intents and purposes, it was over at the point.

And for those who may have thought otherwise, it certainly was when Fowler brought that second-half kickoff back for six and, 5:42 later, Sene Polamalu took his lone handoff around the left side and into the end zone from 16 yards out to make it 52-7.

Orrin Toomer would cap the scoring with 8:24 remaining with a three-yard run.

“(Pottsgrove) overpowered us on the offensive line and defensive line,” Barr said after watching his team’s three-game winning streak end, leaving the Wildcats at 3-2 (3-4 overall). “They were stronger, more physical than us.

“When it was 14-7 we weren’t too concerned, we just wanted to control the ball. But that didn’t work out too well.”

It didn’t because of the overlooked Pottsgrove defense. Wyatt Scott ran 11 times for 37 yards and John Raser came on late to take five carries for 48 yards. But that was nowhere near enough to offset the four sacks — two by Polamalu and one each by Zach Birch and Max Wickward — a blocked punt by Tom Sephakis, and an interception by Nick Brennan. OJR’s offensive line hadn’t surrendered a sack to a PAC-10 opponent prior to Friday night.

Riley Michaels had six tackles to finish first in that category for the Falcons, who got five tackles each from Jeff Adams and Jalen Mayes, and four apiece from Birch and Patrick Finn. The secondary held Raymond — the area’s leading receiver with 10 touchdowns — to just one 12-yard, first-half reception.

“We watched the film (from last Saturday’s less-than-superb win over Methacton), saw what we were doing wrong, and corrected it,” Dukes said. “We realized we can’t slack off. We realized we have to take every game as our own Super Bowl.”

“Like I said, this is the time of the year you have to start playing well,” Pennypacker added. “The kids know that. We reminded them of that after last week.”

And they sure remembered.

NOTES

Pottsgrove did not punt the entire evening and did not get whistled for any penalties. ... Pottsgrove visits Pottstown next Friday night, while OJR attempts to regroup at home against Spring-Ford. ... Barr: “Our kids have to keep their heads up. Pottsgrove’s a good football team. They played well and we didn’t. But our kids will bounce back.”